The United Nations said on Sunday the week-old truce between Israel and Hizbollah could easily collapse, a day after it condemned an Israeli raid on the guerrillas in Lebanon as a violation. Senior U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said the truce that halted the 34-day war had provided the Lebanese government with a good chance to extend its authority over all of the country."We also do believe that unfortunately there is a tilting edge where things very easily, within the next weeks or months, can slide out of control," Roed-Larsen told reporters in Beirut."This is why it's so important that all parties concerned exercise utmost restraint in this situation in order to give the Lebanese army the possibility of deploying fully along all borders of Lebanon, and particularly in the south, and also to allow the international community to provide troops."... http://news.yahoo.com

Sri Lanka's army says it has bombed a sea base from where Tamil Tiger rebels launched attacks on government positions in the Jaffna peninsula. A rebel website said the facility was a civilian shipyard and that bombs had injured four civilians. Denying the report, the military said it had destroyed many rebel boats. Aid agencies have warned that the northern Jaffna peninsula is cut off by fighting and aid cannot reach thousands of trapped civilians. Intense fighting has been going on in northern Sri Lanka for the past week. The Sri Lankan authorities say at least 100 soldiers have died in the fighting while it is unclear how many rebels have died. Sri Lanka's undeclared war is being conducted on three fronts, with air raids, artillery strikes and mortar attacks. About 100,000 people have now been affected by three weeks of hostilities...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5267766.stm

More than 70 Taliban guerrillas have been killed in fighting with NATO and Afghan forces in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, a provincial police official said on Sunday. Four policemen were also killed in the battle in Panjwai district, southwest of Kandahar city, that erupted late on Saturday, said Panjwai police chief Neyaz Mohammad Sarhadi. "So far, we've recovered the bodies of 72 Taliban," Sarhadi told Reuters. He said the battle began when hundreds of Taliban attacked government headquarters in the district where clashes have erupted regularly since May when hundreds of Taliban were found to have infiltrated. NATO aircraft were also involved in the fighting that raged through the night, he said. A NATO spokesman, Major Scott Lundy, said the Taliban had suffered significant casualties. He said the NATO force had not suffered losses. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2334689

Insurgents killed four American soldiers and wounded three others in separate clashes in Afghanistan yesterday as the war-battered nation celebrated its independence day during an upsurge in violence. Three American soldiers were killed and three others wounded during combat operations in the Pech district of the eastern Kunar province, said Col. Tom Collins, the U.S. military spokesman. American troops in that area are hunting for Taliban fighters and extremists close to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in remote mountains hugging the Pakistani border. A separate attack in southern Uruzgan province killed one American soldier and one Afghan soldier yesterday, said Maj. Quentin Innis, the spokesman for the NATO-led force. The violence came as thousands gathered to mark Afghanistan's independence from British rule in 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war. Repeated wars and conflicts have devastated the country of 25 million in the last three decades, with scars still visible on ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060819-104715-2459r.htm

A powerful earthquake struck Sunday in the Scotia Sea between South America and Antarctica, Japanese and U.S. officials said. No tsunami alert was issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center. The 6.9-magnitude quake struck at 1:41 a.m. local time, the USGS said. Japan's Meteorological Agency put the preliminary magnitude at 7.2. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2334153

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has appealed to the international community for help to secure the release of his deputy. Nasser al-Shaer was detained by the Israeli army early on Saturday. The Israeli army said it had detained Mr Shaer because he was a member of a "terrorist organisation". Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian and wounded three near Nablus in the north of the West Bank on Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. Mr Haniya, from the Islamic militant movement Hamas, said the arrest was part of an Israeli attempt to undermine the Palestinian political system Mr Shaer is also a member of Hamas which formed the Palestinian government after winning parliamentary elections earlier this year. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5267876.stm